Newcastle vs Burnley: Rafa Benitez sends message to his players as they edge towards safety

Tuesday night's 2-0 win over Burnley eased the Magpies seven points clear of the relegation zone with 10 games left to play

Damian Spellman
Wednesday 27 February 2019 09:26
Comments
Rafa Benitez hails Newcastle players for win over Burnley

Rafa Benitez has warned his Newcastle team their Premier League survival mission is far from over after seeing them take a significant step towards safety.

Tuesday night's 2-0 win over Burnley, which came just three days after they beat Huddersfield by the same score, eased the Magpies seven points clear of the relegation zone with 10 games left to play.

However, as he turned his attention to Saturday's trip to West Ham, Benitez was refusing to look any further ahead than strictly necessary.

He said: "Obviously winning games, you have more confidence and then the pressure is different, but still we have to have the same idea: one game at a time, the next game is the most important.

"If we are where we are now, it's because we are focused on that and we have to do exactly the same. We cannot think the job is done, no chance.

"There's no over-confidence. We have to keep going - we can lose games, but we have to approach every game with the same mentality as today."

The win was Newcastle's fourth on the trot at St James' Park and took their tally from the last six league outings to 13 points.

It was secured by defender Fabian Schar's stunning 24th-minute strike and in-form midfielder Sean Longstaff's first Premier League goal, which arrived 14 minutes later as the Clarets struggled before the break and left themselves too much to do after it.

Longstaff has risen to prominence in recent weeks after emerging from the Academy ranks, and did his hopes of an England Under-21s call-up little harm with another impressive display.

Benitez said: "I have said so many times when he was coming with us and training with us, he was doing well and he was lucky enough to make his debut sooner rather than later because of injuries, but after, he deserved to be there.

"We decided to keep him in the team because he's working hard, he's playing well, his understanding with (Isaac) Hayden now is quite good, so there are a lot of positives when you have a young lad, local lad playing and scoring goals, obviously."

Burnley boss Sean Dyche was disappointed to see his side surrender its eight-game unbeaten league run on Tyneside, but insisted he could not be too critical of his players.

Schar's goal helped Newcastle to another win

Asked if they had failed to reach their recent standards, Dyche said: "We were a long way off, particularly first half. We were a bit better second half, but first half, a long way off, and sometimes that can happen.

"Credit to them (Newcastle) as well because I thought they were better first half, they were sharper, their anticipation was better. It was a mixed bag, but I believe they deserved to win. I thought their performance overall was better than ours.

"But I'm not going to start criticising a group who have been unbeaten in eight games and have had some massive performances and big results and big points on the board."

Register for free to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism

By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists

Please enter a valid email
Please enter a valid email
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Please enter your first name
Special characters aren’t allowed
Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters
Please enter your last name
Special characters aren’t allowed
Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters
You must be over 18 years old to register
You must be over 18 years old to register
Opt-out-policy
You can opt-out at any time by signing in to your account to manage your preferences. Each email has a link to unsubscribe.

By clicking ‘Create my account’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Already have an account? sign in

By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Register for free to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism

By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists

Already have an account? sign in

By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Join our new commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in